Obama Announces New Programs to Help Minority Youth

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July 21, 2014 / 5:49 PM GMT / Updated July 21, 2014 / 5:49 PM GMT

A group of major businesses and corporations, mostly notably the National Basketball Association, announced new initiatives to help young black and Latino men as part of President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” program.

The NBA said it will fund 25,000 mentors for young men of color across the country. The College Board is creating a program to make sure more minority males enroll in Advanced Placement classes. Leaders of 60 school districts have committed to an 11-point plan to reduce dropout rates and school suspensions among black and Latino boys, the White House said.

The administration is focusing on boys and young men of color because they tend to have higher rates of dropping out and being suspended from school and failing to graduate from high school or college.

“This is a movement we’re trying to build over the next year, five years, ten years,” Obama said in a speech at a Washington. D.C. community center announcing the new corporate support, in a crowd that included NBA star Chris Paul and Attorney General Eric Holder.

“We want fewer younger men in jail, we want more of them in college. We want fewer young men on the street, we want more of them in the boardroom,” he added.